Update: Cubs and Astros will not be playing in Saint Loo.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

...word from our man Rick Hummel is that MLB doesn't look at St. Louis as a suitable location, in part because of its proximity to Chicago, which could give the Cubs an unfair advantage. Also, both Houston and Chicago have an open date Monday, so a good bet would be to wait out the storm and see if they can get at least two games played in Houston.

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What does one say of a person who sees the television news coverage of Hurricane Ike and its predicted path of death and destruction across the Gulf of Mexico and Texas and thinks not of the imminent tragedy, but of the impact the storm is likely to have on the Cubs' pursuit of a division championship?

As that person, I say, sorry, I can't help being a narrowly focused jerk. At least, not when the Cubs are scheduled to begin a weekend series in hurricane-threatened Houston on Friday, are just fitting Rich Harden and Carlos Zambrano back into the regular pitching rotation, and are hoping to give all of the starters an opportunity to establish some rhythm before the Cubs' likely appearance in the post-season.

As of early Wednesday evening, the Astros would only commit to considering changing gametime Friday from 7:05pm to 1:05pm.

Beyond that, there is speculation that the entire series could be moved back north to Chicago, or shuttled to a neutral location like St. Louis. A final decision on the matter will be made Thursday.

Whatever MLB decides, let's hope it doesn't do anything to rattle Wednesday night's Cub starter, Ted Lilly, who bounced back from a disastrous outing against the Reds to allow the Cards just one ER as the Cubs won, 4-3.

Lilly's 8 IP, 5 K, 0 BB effort was worth a Game Score of 74 points, his fifth best start in 64 as a Cub.

As far as I know, there is no metric to capture the emotional value of seeing your 185-pound pitcher run over the opposition's 215-pound starting catcher and knock him right out of the game.